Animal husbandry facilities, such as dairy or hog barns, include alleys or gutters for manure collection. Vehicles such as tractors or skid-steer loaders are equipped with scraper blades or front-end bucket systems to transfer manure accumulated in the alley or gutter to one end of the barn for removal and disposal. The manure is typically liquid or semi-liquid and is often difficult to transfer in this manner, as it escapes around the sides of the scraper blade or bucket. In addition, with the very large facilities that are becoming quite common in modern dairy farming, sometimes with an overall length in excess of 1000 feet, the quantity of accumulated material is too great to transfer to one end of the facility. As a result, there is a need for improvements in the collection and removal of manure from animal husbandry facilities.
Pneumatic collection of agricultural debris is used in a variety of operations both on and off the farm. For example, in the clean-up of spills of dry solid materials, such as grain or agricultural chemicals like fertilizer, vacuum cleaners are employed to pneumatically transfer spilled material to a storage container. An example of such a vacuum apparatus is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,226. However, these types of machines are not particularly well-suited to the collection of liquid or semi-liquid materials such as manure. Moreover, they lack any type of collection means for mounting beneath the apparatus to direct the collected material to the suction inlet when the apparatus is driven over the material, making them difficult to use in large scale mobile cleanup operations. Vacuum systems have been used for mobile cleanup of relatively dry manure, such as chicken and horse manure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,620 discloses a stall and pasture vacuum machine that includes a front mounted sled comprising a rotary brush. A mist of water may be provided to soften the manure and make it more amenable to pneumatic conveying. The collected manure is stored in a dump box with a hinged rear door. This machine is typically not suitable for the cleanup of liquid or semi-liquid materials.
Vacuum systems have been used in the clean-up of manure. U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,670 discloses an apparatus comprising a vacuum tank and a rear-mounted V-shaped scraper blade. However, in mounting the scraper blade at the rear of the apparatus, the manure is compacted prior to being collected, making it difficult to separate from the barn floor and difficult to convey pneumatically.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0236498 discloses another apparatus including a vacuum tank and a suction device for clean-up of manure. The apparatus is configured so that the suction device is connected to the vacuum tank via a suction conduit. Because the suction conduit opens directly into the lower half of the vacuum tank, the apparatus loses suction power during filling.
Therefore there is a need for a solution that overcomes at least one of the deficiencies in the art.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.